"There is difference and there is power. And who holds the power decides the meaning of the difference." --June Jordan

Friday, July 18, 2008

Bigotry in the Fine Print

I just saw this at Queers United (who hat tips Good as You). It seems that the Game Show Network is bringing back the Newlywed Game, but not all newlyweds (i.e. newly married same-sex couples) will be welcome to appear on the show:

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In case you can't see the graphic, this excerpt from the show's Rules and Requirements reads:
"Each newlywed team of contestants must be legally married to each other (legal marriage defined as one that is legally valid in all 50 states of the United States) and, upon Producer's request, must be able to provide proof of marriage (i.e. a marriage certificate) that shows that Contestants are legally married to each other. As of the tape date of the Program, Contestants must still be newlyweds (which is defined as the period of two (2) years after the date of Contestants' original married to each other)."
My first thought about this thinly veiled attempt to exclude gay couples is that it's a huge shame they don't want to welcome same-sex newlyweds with open arms, since doing would mean the writers would have to downplay the ridiculous over-gendered-ness (if I can make that a word here) of the show. I always felt like both the Newlywed Game and The Dating Game had way too much of a Mars/Venus gender binary feel to them.

Either way, there's really no excuse for such discrimination. Maybe the producers just don't think the American public is quite ready to hear gay people answer quirky questions about "making whoopie".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm very excited about the prospect of the term "making whoopie" coming back into our vocabulary, though, thanks to that show.

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